A Simple Question
by NixFi
Summary: Lena has a seemingly easy question to ask Huey about Webby. Unfortunately actually answering the question wasn't going to be easy.


The Junior Woodchuck guidebook had taught Huey a lot of things over the years, from how to tie a perfect reef knot to how to throw the perfect cast, but nothing in it had prepared him for a simple question from Lena. It wasn't a difficult question, but it was what the question meant that made answering it probably one of the hardest things he'd ever done.

"Are you sure there is no one else who could answer this, like Webby?" He asked cautiously, hoping that she would take the hint and find someone, anyone else really, to ask the question to. "Like anyone at all. Maybe a long lost relative, a mystical magical shadow goddess, or Webby?

"Webby wasn't able to tell me, so come on. I know you know the answer." She angrily growled at him, clearly unhappy that he wasn't even attempting to give her a clear answer. She shoved him against the wall and stared him straight in the eye. "It's a simple question, you clearly know the answer. So spit it out before I make you."

"Fine, just let me go" Huey exclaimed as she shover her off him. Despite their size difference, Lena didn't have an advantage over pretty much anyone who spent their lives adventuring through death-traps and tombs. Still, that didn't mean that she couldn't be incredibly annoying when she was pushing for something.

"I mean there are a whole buncha different types so you got to be a little more specific about what you mean. I mean whether kissing is normal, it depends on what type and who you are doing it with. Some are for friends or family, and some are for lovers, in some cultures it can be a form of greeting between casual acquaintances."

"There are types?" She asked, eyeing him warily as if trying to determine some kind of deep falsehood in his words. Sometimes Lena did a fantastic job hiding how utterly repressed and naive she was after years of ignorance under Magica, however, this was most definitely not one of those times and Huey realized that he was going to quickly change tactics. It was a pity that the Woodchuck Guidebook didn't have a properly comprehensive guide on the more nebulous topics like relationships or magical possession. Still, Huey didn't rely solely on the content from the Guidebook and did occasionally pay attention to the world around himself.

"Ah, yeah. Like heaps." He thought about leaving it at that, but Lena just looked lost. She wasn't here for a bit of odd trivia, she needed some real answers, and if that meant that he would need to try to explain romance to her, then so be it. He couldn't just give her a quick guide and shove her off. She needed to work something out and he knew he could help her find the answer. "Look, throwing you a definition isn't what you need. Please just tell me who asked you and what they wanted to do."

"I don't know what she wan-" Lena froze and turned away from him. "I'm not sure I should tell you"

"A Junior Woodchuck knows when and how to keep a personal secret. So just tell me. I'm here to help you, Lena." Huey cut in, placing his arm over her shoulder and pulled her back to face him. "Normally I'd say that this is something that you should talk to the duck who asked you, but I get that you can't. I know it's not something you want to talk to me about, but I can support you here."

There was a rather long silence as Lena utterly failed to keep anything even resembling eye contact, before she finally closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them with what Huey was sure was meant to be a look of determination but honestly looked more like she wanted to curl up in the nearest bed and shut out the world.

"You promise to tell no one?" She asked, no small amount of fear leaking into her voice giving it an unsettling wavering. All it took was a slight nod from Huey before she couldn't contain it any longer.

"Webby asked me last night if we could try kissing. She saw something about it in a book she found about ancient Pagan rituals and she thought it would be fun." She began, returning once again to refusing to meet his eyes. "and it was. I don't know what type of kissing we did and whether it was something we should've done as friends."

"Are you just friends?" Huey asked quietly. "or was she trying to make it something more?"

"How would I know? Why do you think I'm even talking to you now?" Lena complained, looking for all the world like a lost puppy. "I don't know what any of this is, or what anything is meant to mean. All I know is the Webby wanted to kiss me a lot and it was fun and I don't know what any of it means. Am I meant to do something now? Are we still friends, is it something else? Is she waiting for me to do something next, because I don't know what is next or what we are even trying to become? Or was it just a frie-" She was silenced as Huey had clumsily shoved a gloved hand over her bill.

"Lena, I am very much out of my depth here as well. This is the sort of thing that you and Webby should talk about. She looks up to you and I do know that she at the very least wants you as her best friend. So you're just going to have to talk to buck up and talk to her about it." He paused to work out how to nicely word what would come next, but it wasn't the simplest thing to say, so he defaulted to just simply saying it anyway.

"She loves you, we all do. Even Louie, though he will never admit it. Maybe Webby wants to love you more closely, or maybe she just wants to be a very close friend. I don't know. But whatever you think, and no matter what she wants, you two need to work this out together."

"But what if she wants something more, I don't know if I could do that" Lena weakly muttered quietly to herself.

"And so what if you want different things? You aren't obligated to love her romantically, so just be clear with her that you aren't sure about what she wants and what you want. Everything else is what it is."

"What if she just wants to be friends and I make everything weird between us?" Lena mumbled, slumping on the couch.

"Then things will be weird for a bit before they stop being weird." Huey tried his best to placate the worried teen. Truthfully the fact that Lena had come to him of everyone in the family was still somewhat throwing him off his advice game, and he wasn't overly comfortable trying to give decent dating advice to someone who was two years his senior at least.

"We all know that you don't exactly have the most social of a past and Webby isn't really much better at it than you. Neither of you even remotely approach the point of knowing what you're doing so just take it in stride and just stick to what you're both comfortable with and ask plenty of questions."

Lena opened her mouth to respond, but Huey wasn't done just yet.

"I know you came to me because you wanted to know for sure if you and Webby were getting all romantic or whatever so you don't have to get rejected, but I'm sorry to tell you that even if she tackled you to the ground here and French kissed you you two are so socially inept I still wouldn't know with much certainty."

"Frenc-"

"Let's just say that tongues are involved"

"Oh."

"Honestly if Webby had feelings like that for you, even she would have no idea what extent they reach. That's kind of the point of dating and experimenting. To work out where those feelings reached, to find the limits and embrace them. Sometimes you just need to take a risk."

"I don't know if I can do that." She mumbled, becoming rather withdrawn as the conversation had progressed. "I just don't know if I can do that."

"Do you trust Webby?" He asked, lowering his voice as he slowly moved closer to stop her from breaking eye contact so easily.

"Of course." She replied, returning her vision to him.

"And do you think that she would just betray you?" "He asked pointedly.

"Of course not." Lena shot back, some actual anger entering her tone. "I'm not that worried about her not liking me that way. I know what rejection is Huey."

"Then what is the issue?" He asked, started to get a little lost.

"What do I do if I don't love her?" She exclaimed. "What if I just can't be what she wants? I could never reject her."

"Ah..." Huey was somewhat at a loss for words. This conversation had not gone the way he had expected and to say that he was out of his depth was a gross simplification for how little idea he had for where to go next. Even his guidebook had nothing on what to do if you are afraid that you are afraid of not rejection.

Thankfully the true strength of the McDucks was in their complementary skills, so when one fell another was already there to catch them. Of course, despite this nearly universal truth, both Lena and Huey jumped when a new voice joined the conversation.

"So you're scared that she won't not like you?" Dewey cut in from his unnoticed position near the door, standing alongside the other member of the triplet Louie. With the conversation no longer being as quiet as it had started it had easily attracted more attention than either wanted. "Webby likes you, and you like Webby. Stop moping and go talk to her and figure out what you both want."

"Yeah, and you don't hurry up I'll ask her out instead." And now everyone was staring at Louie with varying levels of shock and confusion, but Louie just ignored them and marched over to Lena, pulling her back to her feet. "Here's the deal, I'll give you 10 minutes and if you haven't managed to tell her the truth and sorted out this mess I'll go up there and try my luck. I've known her for years and we both know what would happen."

Lena froze, biting her lip, clearly trying to battle herself to work out what to do.

"Talk to her know, or she's mine," Louie told her, shoving himself into her face. "Go now or it'll be too late." Lena barely hesitated before rushing out of the room, leaving the trio in her dust.

Huey and Dewey couldn't help staring at their brother, trying to work out what had just happened. Louie didn't care, a massive smirk on his face. "You know for someone who had spent most of her life trying to lie and deceive, you'd think she'd be better at knowing when someone is lying."

"Wait, so you weren't going to ask out Webby?" Louie asked.

"Wait, you two thought I was serious?" Louie asked, frowning at the nods from his brothers. "Seriously? It's Webby! She's like our sister, guys."

"So you only said that to get L-" Dewey began.

"To give Lena a good reason to sort out whatever mess she is in with Webby, yeah." Louie couldn't help frowning as a thought occurred to him. "I really hope that whatever they have works out, I do not want to have to work out how to explain to Webby why I was threatening Lena that I was going to date her."

"You know Lena will probably tell her anyway."

"I'll admit that I may not have entirely thought this through."


End file.
